Have Cheetah,Will View #44-“Stand Off” (2011)

It’s 8:33 pm

My fellow film buff Romey is really looking forward to “The Mummy” reboot starring Tom Cruise. I have seen exactly one trailer for it but the scene had me smiling. It shows a couple of elements from the Brendan Fraser trio of Mummy adventures that made Fraser a household name.
But after the last Mummy film came out in 2008,Fraser seemed to have dropped off the map. This is a mystery to me because he was a dynamic leading man who also could easily do family comedies and also handle serious roles as well. But for some reason,parts just dried up for him and his roles of late have been scattered,which is a shame.

Dollar Tree just had one of its quarterly DVD sales and I went hunting for some new titles. I saw “Stand Off” in the bin,saw Brendan Fraser on the cover and picked it up.
The cheetah was a little taken back as he mentioned that we had already watched “ “Standoff”. I showed him the cover and he said “Ahhhhh”. But that got me thinking and so I went to the IMDb page and the mystery was solved….this British crime caper was originally called “Whole Lotta Sole”.

Directed by Terry George, Stand Off starts with Joe Maguire being chased down a Boston street by a very angry woman. Joe jumps into a cab and runs for his life….which leads him to a village in the United Kingdom where he finds a job working for his cousin.
Joe has settled in nicely,the locals like him and he even has a potential girl named Sophie (the beautiful Yaya DaCosta). But he notices a young man always looking at him…when Joe starts after him,the guy bolts.

The young man is Jimbo(Martin McCann) and he has troubles of his own….like owing the local mob boss Mad Dog Flynn 5,000 pounds and only a weekend to get it. When Mad Dog offers to trade Jimbo’s debt (and his life) for Jimbo’s infant son…..the pressure grows. Jimbo decides to rob the fish market on a Friday when it will be flush with cash.
But things go a little sideways and after grabbing a bag of what he thinks is money,Jimbo runs…..and when Joe sees him enter his cousin’s shop….let the games,err,stand off begin. Secrets will be revealed….and be careful of that couch!

While this is what I call a domino film,where as one piece hits another and then that piece hits perfectly….its done with a very deft hand by Terry George.
While billed as a “comedy”,I didn’t find a lot of laughs,Colm Meaney as the DCI in charge has all the funny lines and the chemistry with Michael Legge who plays his son was a treat but this was more of a caper film then a comedy.
The cast was very well put together and it worked seamlessly together. David O’Hara’s Mad Dog had just enough menace but his henchmen made him seem more frustrated then full on dangerous. One thing I did like quite a bit was that “Stand Off” didn’t end as so many of these types of films do…..having a heavy ending pretty undoes all the hard work that has done to make this a delight. Credit screenwriter/writer Thomas Gallagher for being clever enough not to fall into that pitfall.
While “Stand Off” was filmed in 2011….it wasn’t released until 2013. Makes you wonder when will Brendan Fraser catch a break??

The cheetah and I both enjoyed this and gave it a paws/thumbs up.

You can buy a copy of Stand off off of Amazon today.

You can check out the cast and crew of Stand Off by going to the IMDb page.

Drop a comment below if you have seen the film and what you thought of it.